See how Katie learned about cosmetic dentistry the hard way.

The common single broken tooth.

I have always been a life learner. After thirty five years of practicing dentistry, I still take vast amounts of continuing education. I look for insight and advice from anywhere. That’s why I am now reading Katie Couric’s new book, The Best Advice I Ever Got.. I am hoping to find some new perspectives on life.

Two pages in, Katie, explaining how high spirited she was as a child, tells the story of how she broke her front tooth in a bike accident. Evidently she was victimized by one of dentistry’s most difficult situations…matching the single front tooth to its neighbor. The centerpiece of every smile is the two front teeth…and they should look like they are related to each other in every way.

Obviously Katie felt that her dentist didn’t do a good job because she describes another accident a few years later that ended up being a blessing in disguise. She broke her other front tooth, and she admitted that “two caps looked better than one.”

And that is still the state of the art in dentistry, and the reason why so many dentists try to convince patients to fix two teeth rather than one.
Of course there are disadvantages to this way of thinking.

The most obvious is financial.

The problem is one of dentistry’s most common cosmetic issue. Kids leaning over water fountains get hit from behind. Just today a patient came in with a diagonal chip on the side of his front tooth caused by a surfing accident. It could have happened with a beer bottle or from chewing ice.

In my practice I try to take the most conservative route.

I try to preserve natural teeth when possible. Not only does it save our patients money, but the wise thing as Hippocrates told us 2500 years ago was, “above all do no harm.” Creating trauma to strong healthy teeth can causes other problems somewhere down the road.

The key to creating this invisible fix is finding a dentist who has this conservative philosophy, and works with a skilled dental technician that has the ability to create perfect matches. This is no easy feat. Patients should look to see photographs of similar cases.

A solid track record in fixing single front teeth is something the technician should be proud of. Having a technician on the premises is a big advantage when this service is needed. If the technician is not on the premises then he or she should be available.

Our practice has the advantage of having Niche Dental Studio within the practice. We are proud of the many cases completed that have let our patients return to their social lives with no one knowing the difference.

Niche's Invisible Mini Veneer

Sure Katie Couric found out the hard way, but you can just come in and take a look at our portfolio of cases. Check out the photo of this very common occurrence of the broken single front tooth.